I have been playing Ogame on and off since June 2020 I think.
I started it in the middle of the first Covid lockdown when I was working nights. Not much else to do.
I was somewhat organised starting out: I made sure to build energy and robotics factories first, then mines etc. After a few weeks I had a bunch of planets and good economy.
For the last 6 years I would 'play' Ogame for maybe on average a week or so, as well as logging in once a day to buy an item from import/export. Otherwise I was in vacation mode 90% of the time.
Lifeforms
They introduced Lifeforms sometime around 2023 I think? I had 11 of my planets set to Human and my 12th one set to Rock'tal, the miner race. Humans are somewhat balanced but are pretty damn good. The other two are more nice fleeter/researcher.
As for Lifeform Technologies: initially I had the 11 Human planets set to mostly Human tech for free. Only more recently in 2024/2025 I started to buy better, resource-boosting techs.
Cue January/February 2026 where I made it a personal project to optimise and maximise my Lifeforms. I reset a bunch of the tech trees for free and bought a load of optimal, mining or cargo related lifeform techs. I kept a few Human ones that were crap but the altneratives are not much better: namely on the second tech tree, 3rd one down - Light Fighter boost for humans. The alternative for Rock'tal is cheaper Plasma Tech. And with all of these techs we are talking, 0.1% cheaper per level so it's not exactly all that important.
Discoverer
I selected Collector at the start for the mining boost. That was my class 2020-2026. I switched to Discoverer on reflection (probably should have always been it) and it's just better for now. Will switch back to Collector when mines are maxed out. Better inactive raiding, better colony size, better expedition results, faster research, it all works out better than having 10% more mining per day or whatever.
Planet 13
I saved a load of resources and raided like crazy and was able to buy Astro Tech 23, allowing me to have 13 planets. I think I got the previous two levels for free December 2024 and 2025. Every second level lets you colonise a new planet.
I'm a Discoverer now so raiding inactives is 75% as opposed to 50% loot (very nice), expedition fleets net huge resources (almost the equivalent of a day's mining) and the 13th planet is the largest one thanks to the Discoverer as well.
Planet 13 is the largest by far, has no moon yet and is my second Rock'tal planet. It's on slot 9 in my 'home system' alongide the other Rock'tal planet (slot 7), homeworld on slot 8, crystal farm on slot 1 and deuterium farm on slot 15. So 5 planets in the home system in one galaxy and 8 other planets, 1 for each of the 8 other galaxies.
It took a few days but is mostly up to scratch mining and lifeform wise.
What's next
Will take an extended break, the last month was the most I played in ages. I'd hope to standardise mines to a certain extent (43/37/39 I think) and research (woefully behind).
I had neglected/not optimised Lifeforms prior to this so was nice to really focus on it and unlock Tier 3 on all planets; most are on Tier 3:2 but homeworld has 3:4. The final, 18th level of LF tech is tier 3:rank 6 (3:6) so that would be the next goal eventually.
